Smoking articles such as cigarettes and a variety of other consumer goods are commonly sold in hinge-lid containers having a body portion and a lid portion, which is hinged to the body portion. In conventional hinge-lid cigarette packs, the lid portion of the pack is hinged to the top of the rear wall of the body portion thereof along a transverse hinge line and the cigarettes stand in the body portion of the upright pack with their longitudinal axes parallel to the longitudinal axis of the pack. When the consumer opens the pack, by pivoting the front of the lid portion up and to the rear, the upper ends of the cigarettes standing in the body portion are exposed, while in the closed position, the front wall, rear wall and side walls of the lid portion of the hinge-lid pack form vertical extensions of the corresponding walls of the body portion thereof.
As an alternative to such conventional “top-opening” hinge-lid cigarette packs, it is also known to provide “side-opening” hinge-lid cigarette packs wherein the lid portion of the pack is hinged to an elongate open side of the body portion thereof and the cigarettes are housed in the body portion of the pack with their longitudinal axes parallel to the elongate open side thereof. WO-A-99/52791, for example, discloses a side-opening hinge-lid cigarette pack in which the rear wall of the lid portion of the pack is pivotally connected to the rear wall of the body portion along a vertical hinge line, parallel to the longitudinal axes of the cigarettes therein. The pack disclosed in WO-A-99/52791 further comprises a liner mounted in the body portion of the pack, which projects from the open side of the body portion into the space covered by the lid portion in the closed position. In use, cigarettes standing in the body portion of the pack are partially enclosed by the liner, a side wall of which prevents sideways escape of the cigarettes from the pack.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,058,646 discloses an alternative side-opening hinge-lid cigarette pack in which the bottom wall of the lid portion of the pack is pivotally connected to the bottom wall of the body portion along a horizontal hinge line, perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cigarettes therein. Like the pack described in WO-A-99/52791, the pack of U.S. Pat. No. 3,058,646 also comprises a liner secured to the body portion of the pack, which projects from the open side of the body portion into the space covered by the lid portion in the closed position. As well as restricting sideways movement of cigarettes held in the body portion of the pack, the liner of the pack disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,058,646 is also provided with a pair of opposed tabs that extend substantially parallel to the plane of the front and rear walls thereof. In order to hold the pack in the open or closed position, as desired, the free ends of these tabs are adhered to the inner surface of the front and rear walls of the lid portion of the pack. In use, as the lid portion is pivoted about the hinge line in order to open and close the pack, folding of the tabs flexes the front and rear walls of the lid portion of the pack outwardly, is placing the tabs under compression and creating resistance to the opening and closing of the pack.